Elements of Chemistry, by Antoine Lavoisier

Chapter VIII.

Of the Radical Principle of Water, and of its Decomposition by Charcoal and Iron.

Until very lately, water has always been thought a simple substance, insomuch that the older chemists considered it
as an element. Such it undoubtedly was to them, as they were unable to decompose it; or, at least, since the
decomposition which took place daily before their eyes was entirely unnoticed. But we mean to prove, that water is by
no means a simple or elementary substance. I shall not here pretend to give the history of this recent, and hitherto
contested discovery, which is detailed in the Memoirs of the Academy for 1781, but shall only bring forwards the
principal proofs of the decomposition and composition of water; and, I may venture to say, that these will be
convincing to such as consider them impartially.

Experiment First.

Having fixed the glass tube EF, (Pl. vii. fig. 11.) of from 8 to 12
lines diameter, across a furnace, with a small inclination from E to F, lute the superior extremity E to the glass
retort A, containing a determinate quantity of distilled water, and to the inferior extremity F, the worm SS fixed into
the neck of the doubly tubulated bottle H, which has the bent tube KK adapted to one of its openings, in such a manner
as to convey such aëriform fluids or gasses as may be disengaged, during the experiment, into a proper apparatus for
determining their quantity and nature.

To render the success of this experiment certain, it is necessary that the tube EF be made of well annealed and
difficultly fusible glass, and that it be coated with a lute composed of clay mixed with powdered stone-ware; besides
which, it must be supported about its middle by means of an iron bar passed through the furnace, lest it should soften
and bend during the experiment. A tube of China-ware, or porcellain, would answer better than one of glass for this
experiment, were it not difficult to procure one so entirely free from pores as to prevent the passage of air or of
vapours.

When things are thus arranged, a fire is lighted in the furnace EFCD, which is supported of such a strength as to
keep the tube EF red hot, but not to make it melt; and, at the same time, such a fire is kept up in the furnace VVXX,
as to keep the water in the retort A continually boiling.

In proportion as the water in the retort A is evaporated, it fills the tube EF, and drives out the air it contained
by the tube KK; the aqueous gas formed by evaporation is condensed by cooling in the worm SS, and falls, drop by drop,
into the tubulated bottle H. Having continued this operation until all the water be evaporated from the retort, and
having carefully emptied all the vessels employed, we find that a quantity of water has passed over into the bottle H,
exactly equal to what was before contained in the retort A, without any disengagement of gas whatsoever: So that this
experiment turns out to be a simple distillation; and the result would have been exactly the same, if the water had
been run from one vessel into the other, through the tube EF, without having undergone the intermediate
incandescence.

Experiment Second.

The apparatus being disposed, as in the former experiment, 28 grs. of charcoal, broken into moderately
small parts, and which has previously been exposed for a long time to a red heat in close vessels, are introduced into
the tube EF. Every thing else is managed as in the preceding experiment.

The water contained in the retort A is distilled, as in the former experiment, and, being condensed in the worm,
falls into the bottle H; but, at the same time, a considerable quantity of gas is disengaged, which, escaping by the
tube KK, is received in a convenient apparatus for that purpose. After the operation is finished, we find nothing but a
few atoms of ashes remaining in the tube EF; the 28 grs. of charcoal having entirely disappeared.

When the disengaged gasses are carefully examined, they are sound to weigh 113.7 grs.16; these are of two kinds, viz. 144 cubical inches of carbonic acid gas, weighing 100
grs. and 380 cubical inches of a very light gas, weighing only 13.7 grs. which takes fire when in
contact with air, by the approach of a lighted body; and, when the water which has passed over into the bottle H is
carefully examined, it is found to have lost 85.7 grs. of its weight. Thus, in this experiment, 85.7
grs. of water, joined to 28 grs. of charcoal, have combined in such a way as to form 100
grs. of carbonic acid, and 13.7 grs. of a particular gas capable of being burnt.

I have already shown, that 100 grs. of carbonic acid gas consists of 72 grs. of oxygen, combined
with 28 grs. of charcoal; hence the 28 grs. of charcoal placed in the glass tube have acquired 72
grs. of oxygen from the water; and it follows, that 85.7 grs. of water are composed of 72
grs. of oxygen, combined with 13.7 grs. of a gas susceptible of combustion. We shall see presently
that this gas cannot possibly have been disengaged from the charcoal, and must, consequently, have been produced from
the water.

I have suppressed some circumstances in the above account of this experiment, which would only have complicated and
obscured its results in the minds of the reader. For instance, the inflammable gas dissolves a very small part of the
charcoal, by which means its weight is somewhat augmented, and that of the carbonic gas proportionally diminished.
Altho' the alteration produced by this circumstance is very inconsiderable; yet I have thought it necessary to
determine its effects by rigid calculation, and to report, as above, the results of the experiment in its simplified
state, as if this circumstance had not happened. At any rate, should any doubts remain respecting the consequences I
have drawn from this experiment, they will be fully dissipated by the following experiments, which I am going to adduce
in support of my opinion.

Experiment Third.

The apparatus being disposed exactly as in the former experiment, with this difference, that instead of the 28
grs. of charcoal, the tube EF is filled with 274 grs. of soft iron in thin plates, rolled up
spirally. The tube is made red hot by means of its furnace, and the water in the retort A is kept constantly boiling
till it be all evaporated, and has passed through the tube EF, so as to be condensed in the bottle H.

No carbonic acid gas is disengaged in this experiment, instead of which we obtain 416 cubical inches, or 15
grs. of inflammable gas, thirteen times lighter than atmospheric air. By examining the water which has been
distilled, it is found to have lost 100 grs. and the 274 grs. of iron confined in the tube are found
to have acquired 85 grs. additional weight, and its magnitude is considerably augmented. The iron is now
hardly at all attractable by the magnet; it dissolves in acids without effervescence; and, in short, it is converted
into a black oxyd, precisely similar to that which has been burnt in oxygen gas.

In this experiment we have a true oxydation of iron, by means of water, exactly similar to that produced in
air by the assistance of heat. One hundred grains of water having been decomposed, 85 grs. of oxygen have
combined with the iron, so as to convert it into the state of black oxyd, and 15 grs. of a peculiar
inflammable gas are disengaged: From all this it clearly follows, that water is composed of oxygen combined with the
base of an inflammable gas, in the respective proportions of 85 parts, by weight of the former, to 15 parts of the
latter.

Thus water, besides the oxygen, which is one of its elements in common with many other substances, contains another
element as its constituent base or radical, and for which we must find an appropriate term. None that we could think of
seemed better adapted than the word hydrogen, which signifies the generative principle of water, from
υδορ aqua, and γεινομας gignor17. We call the combination of
this element with caloric hydrogen gas; and the term hydrogen expresses the base of that gas, or the radical
of water.

This experiment furnishes us with a new combustible body, or, in other words, a body which has so much affinity with
oxygen as to draw it from its connection with caloric, and to decompose air or oxygen gas. This combustible body has
itself so great affinity with caloric, that, unless when engaged in a combination with some other body, it always
subsists in the aëriform or gasseous state, in the usual temperature and pressure of our atmosphere. In this state of
gas it is about 1/13 of the weight of an equal bulk of atmospheric air; it is not absorbed by water, though it is
capable of holding a small quantity of that fluid in solution, and it is incapable of being used for respiration.

As the property this gas possesses, in common with all other combustible bodies, is nothing more than the power of
decomposing air, and carrying off its oxygen from the caloric with which it was combined, it is easily understood that
it cannot burn, unless in contact with air or oxygen gas. Hence, when we set fire to a bottle full of this gas, it
burns gently, first at the neck of the bottle, and then in the inside of it, in proportion as the external air gets in:
This combustion is slow and successive, and only takes place at the surface of contact between the two gasses. It is
quite different when the two gasses are mixed before they are set on fire: If, for instance, after having introduced
one part of oxygen gas into a narrow mouthed bottle, we fill it up with two parts of hydrogen gas, and bring a lighted
taper, or other burning body, to the mouth of the bottle, the combustion of the two gasses takes place instantaneously
with a violent explosion. This experiment ought only to be made in a bottle of very strong green glass, holding not
more than a pint, and wrapped round with twine, otherwise the operator will be exposed to great danger from the rupture
of the bottle, of which the fragments will be thrown about with great force.

If all that has been related above, concerning the decomposition of water, be exactly conformable to truth; — if, as
I have endeavoured to prove, that substance be really composed of hydrogen, as its proper constituent element, combined
with oxygen, it ought to follow, that, by reuniting these two elements together, we should recompose water; and that
this actually happens may be judged of by the following experiment.

Experiment Fourth.

I took a large cristal baloon, A, Pl. iv. fig. 5. holding about 30
pints, having a large opening, to which was cemented the plate of copper BC, pierced with four holes, in which four
tubes terminate. The first tube, H h, is intended to be adapted to an air pump, by which the baloon is to be exhausted
of its air. The second tube gg, communicates, by its extremity MM, with a reservoir of oxygen gas, with which the
baloon is to be filled. The third tube d D d', communicates, by its extremity d NN, with a reservoir of hydrogen gas.
The extremity d' of this tube terminates in a capillary opening, through which the hydrogen gas contained in the
reservoir is forced, with a moderate degree of quickness, by the pressure of one or two inches of water. The fourth
tube contains a metallic wire GL, having a knob at its extremity L, intended for giving an electrical spark from L to
d', on purpose to set fire to the hydrogen gas: This wire is moveable in the tube, that we may be able to separate the
knob L from the extremity d' of the tube D d'. The three tubes d D d', gg, and H h, are all provided with
stop-cocks.

That the hydrogen gas and oxygen gas may be as much as possible deprived of water, they are made to pass, in their
way to the baloon A, through the tubes MM, NN, of about an inch diameter, and filled with salts, which, from their
deliquescent nature, greedily attract the moisture of the air: Such are the acetite of potash, and the muriat or nitrat
of lime18. These salts must only be reduced to a coarse powder, lest they run
into lumps, and prevent the gasses from geting through their interstices.

We must be provided before hand with a sufficient quantity of oxygen gas, carefully purified from all admixture of
carbonic acid, by long contact with a solution of potash19.

We must likewise have a double quantity of hydrogen gas, carefully purified in the same manner by long contact with
a solution of potash in water. The best way of obtaining this gas free from mixture is, by decomposing water with very
pure soft iron, as directed in Exp. 3. of this chapter.

Having adjusted every thing properly, as above directed, the tube H h is adapted to an air-pump, and the baloon A is
exhausted of its air. We next admit the oxygen gas so as to fill the baloon, and then, by means of pressure, as is
before mentioned, force a small stream of hydrogen gas through its tube D d', which we immediately set on fire by an
electric spark. By means of the above described apparatus, we can continue the mutual combustion of these two gasses
for a long time, as we have the power of supplying them to the baloon from their reservoirs, in proportion as they are
consumed. I have in another place20 given a description of the apparatus used
in this experiment, and have explained the manner of ascertaining the quantities of the gasses consumed with the most
scrupulous exactitude.

In proportion to the advancement of the combustion, there is a deposition of water upon the inner surface of the
baloon or matrass A: The water gradually increases in quantity, and, gathering into large drops, runs down to the
bottom of the vessel. It is easy to ascertain the quantity of water collected, by weighing the baloon both before and
after the experiment. Thus we have a twofold verification of our experiment, by ascertaining both the quantities of the
gasses employed, and of the water formed by their combustion: These two quantities must be equal to each other. By an
operation of this kind, Mr Meusnier and I ascertained that it required 85 parts, by weight, of oxygen, united to 15
parts of hydrogen, to compose 100 parts of water. This experiment, which has not hitherto been published, was made in
presence of a numerous committee from the Royal Academy. We exerted the most scrupulous attention to its accuracy; and
have reason to believe that the above propositions cannot vary a two hundredth part from absolute truth.

From these experiments, both analytical and synthetic, we may now affirm that we have ascertained, with as much
certainty as is possible in physical or chemical subjects, that water is not a simple elementary substance, but is
composed of two elements, oxygen and hydrogen; which elements, when existing separately, have so strong affinity for
caloric, as only to subsist under the form of gas in the common temperature and pressure of our atmosphere.

This decomposition and recomposition of water is perpetually operating before our eyes, in the temperature of the
atmosphere, by means of compound elective attraction. We shall presently see that the phenomena attendant upon vinous
fermentation, putrefaction, and even vegetation, are produced, at least in a certain degree, by decomposition of water.
It is very extraordinary that this fact should have hitherto been overlooked by natural philosophers and chemists:
Indeed, it strongly proves, that, in chemistry, as in moral philosophy, it is extremely difficult to overcome
prejudices imbibed in early education, and to search for truth in any other road than the one we have been accustomed
to follow.

I shall finish this chapter by an experiment much less demonstrative than those already related, but which has
appeared to make more impression than any other upon the minds of many people. When 16 ounces of alkohol are burnt in
an apparatus21 properly adapted for collecting all the water disengaged during
the combustion, we obtain from 17 to 18 ounces of water. As no substance can furnish a product larger than its original
bulk, it follows, that something else has united with the alkohol during its combustion; and I have already shown that
this must be oxygen, or the base of air. Thus alkohol contains hydrogen, which is one of the elements of water; and the
atmospheric air contains oxygen, which is the other element necessary to the composition of water. This experiment is a
new proof that water is a compound substance.

16 In the latter part of this work will be found a particular account of
the processes necessary for separating the different kinds of gasses, and for determining their quantities. — A.

17 This expression Hydrogen has been very severely criticised by some, who
pretend that it signifies engendered by water, and not that which engenders water. The experiments related in this
chapter prove, that, when water is decomposed, hydrogen is produced, and that, when hydrogen is combined with oxygen,
water is produced: So that we may say, with equal truth, that water is produced from hydrogen, or hydrogen is produced
from water. — A.

18 See the nature of these salts in the second part of this book. — A.

19 By potash is here meant, pure or caustic alkali, deprived of carbonic
acid by means of quick-lime: In general, we may observe here, that all the alkalies and earths must invariably be
considered as in their pure or caustic state, unless otherwise expressed. — E. The method of obtaining this pure alkali
of potash will be given in the sequel. — A.